Stacksonville Jaguars: Easiest way to win your fantasy football draft

Trevor Lawrence is coming at an extreme value in fantasy football drafts. (Twitter // @AroundTheNFL)

In fantasy football, there’s one surefire way to win your draft, and that’s by stacking the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Sure, this might be unfamiliar territory for some as there’s never, ever, been a good time to target this team in fantasy drafts, but this isn’t your typical Jacksonville squad. The Jags selected generational quarterback prospect Trevor Lawrence with the first-overall pick, completely altering the complexion of the franchise. The team also added his college teammate, Travis Etienne, later in the first-round, really cementing the offense’s skill position players.

Despite the fantasy football league-winning upside Lawrence and subsequently, the rest of the Jaguars’ offense possesses, all members of the team can be had at an extreme value, making it the best team to stack in your draft.

Drafting Trevor Lawrence

The rationale behind drafting Lawrence is really quite simple. A generational QB prospect is entering the NFL and it costs you literally nothing to select him.

In Yahoo fantasy football drafts, Lawrence is the 17th QB off the board. Players like Ben Roethlisberger and Jared Goff – who have zero upside – are currently being taken ahead of him. In addition to vastly superior arm talent, Lawrence has one other ability in his arsenal that these players don’t: He’s a threat to run.

Over his last two seasons at Clemson, Lawrence averaged 6.84 rushes per-game, while tacking on 17 rushing touchdowns. He doesn’t have a 40-yard dash time on record as he didn’t run ahead of the NFL Draft, but there’s plenty of tape to watch if you want to see his wheels.

Rushing QBs are king in fantasy football given how easy it is for mobile passers to accumulate fantasy points on the ground, and Lawrence is more than capable of racking up points this way.

Drafting D.J. Chark

D.J. Chark is the Jaguars wide receiver who currently owns the highest ADP on Yahoo, hovering right around pick 98. He’s currently WR32 in drafts, making him an attainable WR3 in 2021 fantasy football drafts.

Many had Chark pegged as a top-20 option at the position last year following a 1,000-plus receiving yard season in 2019. The wideout predictably failed in 2020, however, given the circumstances. Gardner Minshew bombed in his chance to be the starter, which meant Jacksonville’s receivers had to endure half a season of Mike Glennon and Jake Luton. While also dealing with ankle, ribs and shin injuries, Chark finished with just 53 receptions, 706 yards and five touchdowns in .

With a major upgrade at QB, the 24-year-old should be poised to rebound and turn in a career year.

Drafting Laviska Shenault Jr.

Very quietly, Laviska Shenault Jr. had a nice rookie season. He didn’t provide Justin Jefferson or CeeDee Lamb levels of production, but his 600 receiving yards ranked seventh amongst all freshman wideouts while his five receiving touchdowns tied for fourth. What makes these numbers even more impressive is he did all of this while enduring some truly putrid quarterback play.

Shenault Jr. is a really interesting player entering his second season, as his ceiling seems to be very high now that Lawrence has arrived. The 42nd overall pick in the 2020 draft, Shenault Jr. is most comparable to Tennessee Titans star A.J. Brown, according to PlayerProfiler. At 6-1, 227 lbs, he has alpha wide receiver size and looks like a running back in the open field.

The 22-year-old showed enough in his first season to warrant a selection, especially when considering that his ADP is 128.1 on Yahoo, making him WR52.

Drafting Marvin Jones Jr.

Admittedly, Marvin Jones Jr. is the Jags wide receiver I am the lowest on in fantasy football. While his veteran presence will be valuable for young players like Shenault Jr. and Chark, at 31 years old, he doesn’t possess the same upside as his teammates. He is, however, still going as a value in drafts, which still gives him some appeal.

Appearing in all 16 games for the Detroit Lions last season, Jones Jr. finished with 978 receiving yards and nine touchdowns. It was the third time in the last four seasons that Jones Jr. scored nine touchdowns. Jones Jr.’s ability to find the end zone will likely hamper Chark and Shenault Jr.’s TD totals, but with no real threat at tight end to emerge as a key member of the passing game, the passing tree remains relatively small in Jacksonville.

Jones Jr. finished as WR18 in fantasy football last season, proving that he can still be a valuable player to roster. The pecking order of this passing attack is likely unsettled as new head coach Urban Meyer has no loyalty to either Chark or Shenault Jr., meaning it shouldn’t be shocking if Jones Jr. assumes a bigger role in this offense than his ADP suggest. He’s currently being selected as WR57 in Yahoo drafts.

Drafting Travis Etienne

Sometimes drafting the running back in addition to the quarterback of the same team is counterintuitive as it’s hard to maximize fantasy points if one’s production comes at the expense of the other’s, but that’s not the case with Travis Etienne.

Earlier this offseason, it was reported that Etienne was working mostly as a receiver in training camp. After snagging 48 receptions on 60 targets with Lawrence at Clemson last year, it’d be foolish to believe Etienne’s receiving skills won’t be highlighted in addition to his rushing abilities in his rookie campaign. James Robinson is still lurking, but I’d imagine the Jaguars aren’t in the business of wasting first-round picks, so while a tandem is the likely outcome, I expect Etienne to handle much of the passing and goal-line work. I’m not very interested in adding Robinson to a Jags passing-game stack, as he likely won’t see much receiving work.

As it currently stands, Etienne has a highly palatable 74.1 ADP on Yahoo, making him RB28.